Having done a bit of reading about checklist design, and the challenge-response style, I’ve reconfigured the resus time out checklist. I was actually working on this the other night after finished a late shift up in Darwin, and was on-call for the ED overnight. Sure enough I was asleep for about an hour when the [...]
BBC Horizon & Kevin Fong Explore Human Factors in Healthcare
Although titled “How to Avoid Mistakes in Surgery”, which may lead some medical viewers to dismiss it as unrelated to their specialty, the BBC Horizons program last week aired a fascinating episode, hosted by Dr Kevin Fong, a well-known Anaesthetic/ICU Consultant turned TV presenter from England, whose credits include such shows as Extreme A&E. In [...]
Tearing down the silos in Critical Care Medicine
After a rousing start from Scott Weingart at SMACC2013, John Myburgh, Intensivist from StGeorge in Sydney raised the issue of “silos” in Critical Care Medicine. Why do we still see ourselves as such distinct specialties, who “play on different teams”, who are antagonistic, who often lose the focus of the patient as the most important [...]
Process Communication Model: Surgeons trying to communicate better?!
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, via their Professional Development area are running a course that can only benefit, well, all of us! The Process Communication Model course involves reflecting on one’s own communication style, analysing your colleagues as well as your own communication styles under stress, and aims provide attendees with skills to better [...]
Vortex – Cognitive Aid for Unanticipated Difficult Airways
Peter Fritz and Nick Chrimes from Melbourne have just released a groundbreaking new concept in airway management. Utilising a cognitive aid as opposed to a traditional flowchart algorithm, and a short checklist, the Vortex approach to unanticipated difficult airway management is designed to be easy to remember and implement, to be used by any critical [...]
The Resus “Time Out!”
“Time Outs” have been used in the operating theatre for many years. They are designed as an error reduction method, whereby everyone in the theatre stops what they are doing whilst a checklist is run through, ensuring that the correct procedure is being carried out, on the correct patient, by the correct people with the [...]
Is resus like football? The debate is on at StEmlyn’s
Rich over at the amazing St Emlyn’s blog did a fantastic post this week where he mentioned the “seriously awesome” Resus Room Management site (thanks Rich!) and the post I did about teamwork. In it he described how he likens resus to his weekly “football” (read “soccer” for Aussies) matches. His team is often heterogenous, [...]
Resus Room Setup: The Monitor
For my entire Emergency training, every time I intubated or sedated someone, or dealt with any resus patient from the head of the bed, I had to constantly look over my shoulder to look at a monitor that was attached to the wall behind me, whilst trying not to lose focus on the patient laying [...]
Aviation vs Emergency Medicine: CRM Smackdown
Comparisons between aviation and medicine are commonplace, and have made their way into the medical literature, forming the basis for the attempts at application of CRM in medical settings. Whilst there are some common elements, such as being responsible for peoples lives in an error prone environment, CRM is an industry specific concept that has [...]
Recent Comments